Production of the 1969 Rambler SC/Rambler was supposed to be only 500 units, apparently to homologate the SC/Rambler for National Hot Rod Association competition in the F/Stock class. There it would face off against 'Cuda 340s and W-31 Olds 4-4-2s. Rules required only 500, but AMC was hungry enough to build as many as it could sell. Demand caused the final figure to be 1,512.

There were paint variations and detail changes to items like the hood scoop, but the basic color scheme was a white body with broad red bodyside band outlined in black; a wide blue racing stripe down the roof and deck; another blue stripe on the hood, forming an arrow pointing at the big scoop; and corresponding red/white/blue accents on the gray vinyl interior.

According to marketing vice president R. W. McNealey, "The SC/Rambler is the ideal vehicle for the motorist who wants better-than-average performance and also a car that is uniquely different from 70 million others on the streets today . . . for the motorist who wants a customized car, but has neither the time nor inclination [or the money?] to build it himself." Routine PR stuff, that, but hear another AMC press release: "imagine the looks on faces when you lay down an e.t. in the low 14s at, say, 98 mph . . . right off the showroom floor! And set up for the strip with a little sharp tuning, who knows? You might be turning 12s." This was the AMC that a scant decade before was ridiculing the horsepower race and selling the public on 25 mpg economy. But times had changed.

This dichotomy between the "old" AMC and the new caused many to doubt that the SC/Rambler was really as good as its specifications suggested, but they were wrong. The performance was terrific. Car Life ran 0-60 in 6.3 seconds, and confirmed the promise of AMC press releases with a 14.2-second standing quarter-mile. Car and Driver praised AMC for creating "a car which makes it in almost all the categories . . . it can run and it can stop. . . . For lack of a better classification, the SC/R is a street rod."

AMC had also suggested the possibility of 12-second quarter-miles. Edrie Marquez's Amazing AMC Muscle notes that this too was possible. Dale Young, in an SC/R modified with high-lift cam, Edelbrock manifold with matching Holley carb, modified distributor, and Goodyear racing slicks, made five runs in the 12-second range, the last two being 12.69 seconds at 110.5 mph, and 12.67 at 109.99. A later SC/R, with only $1,500 worth of drag modifications, "could turn 12.30s at 112 mph all day long . . . . The Scrambler had permitted the little Rambler American to bow out in a blaze of high performance glory."

Click on the next page for the 1969 Rambler SC/Rambler's mechanical specifications.

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